Creative Technologies

imagineering

The basic concept of colab is imagining for the future. But as I am a cynical man and that most of my survey suggest that most people are all only to look out for themselves, it is interesting what the world, doing something out of the good of their heart really takes people. And i would really like to incorporate something like this in my final outcome. My main focus for my final studio project is how to integrate homeless people back into society. Initially i wanted a mandatory program that forced homeless people and non-homeless people to have dinner to force a connection. But when I found out that no one really wants to sit down with a stranger, especially with one we associate failure with, ie, homelessness. It then became prevalent that people only really wanted to say that they are helping people, to make themselves better, mostly in the form of donating. So this really helped me open what i am looking for.

So I decided to propose something for homeless people. What do they really need? Looking at my interview, it saw that most of them are willing to work. Although they only said it ant not really acted about their desires, as it is said that it is easy to say than do. I broke down what the thing I am trying to create. An artifact that allows then to make money and therefore becomes their job? Or give them a job that will earn them money? They might sound similar, but I think there is a distinct difference between the two statements. The first one, give them something that will allow them to earn money maybe donations? And the side effect is a job. The other sentence is that my main goal is to allow them to become a useful member of society and therefore get paid. and the side effect is money?

I would like to focus on the second sentence. Give them a job and the money will be a side effect. For many people, a fulfilling job is very beneficial and help them keep off the street. But since they are homeless people, they don’t really have much desirable skills, useful skills that company and people would want working for them. I would like to imagine a dark and uncomfortable advancement for the year 2076. The big problem with many AIs is that for example Siri from the Apple phone, it is incredibly buggy when it comes to try understanding speech from people. Auckland is easily translated to Oakland. as i imagine it, for the year 2076, it is still complicated to create a fully independent AI. They could be close but I think they won’t be there yet.

i want to Take homeless people and use their brains as the computer, as the processor in a computer. The homeless person will be brought into a facility, be then plugged into a machine and their brains will then become a computer. as a human, we can detect emotions, we can detect speech patterns more accurately than a computer currently can. For each uploaded homeless person, there is an equivalent ball arc interface that people will interact with.

and this interface I called, Pida. loosely connected to the Greek word for hope. This interface will be in people’s homes. it will be in libraries, shopping centers cars. Connected through the internet, and These Pidas will be able to communicate with each other as a giant mesh of individual computers connected in a giant network. As for one ethical concern is the privacy issue. invasion of the user’s privacy etc etc. personally I think privacy is non-existent nowadays but that is beside the point. The way these things will work is that at the end of each day the homeless people will be drained of their memory. As a sort of read-only mode. They are only being used to calculate, understand, and complete task but will not retain any prevalent information, names, address weight except privacy concerns that are already approved such as the spending habits of people that allow companies to give them tailored ads.

the other things that I am trying to pinpoint for myself are, what is integration, what is the desired state? Initially I want homeless and non-homeless citizens to be able to sit down in dinner and force a connection. But I quickly found that no one wanted that. I then thought of ways trying to force a connection of giving and take. Instead of a one-way transaction, the homeless person will get paid with dinner with a person or family in exchange for let’s say cleaning cars. But I felt this was not 2076 enough, IT felt too bland and really could happen now and not speculative enough. so Then I took what I saw in my data. people didn’t even want to order a human looking thing that is why i was forced to make a geometrical object closer to a nonhuman form, AI. People are more inclined to order a nonhuman thing because they are built for that?

i think it is enough as the solution for integration as a job, they become desirable and maybe even become important as they become integrated in our everyday lives?

But i did want to play with this because this is incredibly dark, it is not looking to the bright future and not something people would want to see. But if this becomes true, if it becomes something important, does it become acceptable? does it become something of an everyday thing? This is weird. But i think this is the only acceptable technology. People will reject this initially but i think it could become a thing. it partially solves the issues of the homeless people because there is still that barrier. Maybe homelessness no longer becomes a problem. maybe the prejudice comes in the form of Pidas. Whoever is a Pida is considered dirty or something.

but to me this is what accomplishment looks like because it is not a 100 percent solution, it is a give and take that really questions people’s morality. its not hurting anyone. its not doing any harm. in fact, by participating in this, you are giving homeless people jobs. But is this the same as the sweatshop issue?you buy $200 Nikes that was made somewhere in an Asian country in a sweatshop. You are giving them jobs they become important in a western country. But you see for one side to enjoy a luxurious life, someone has to suffer, work long hours with minimal pay to wear your designer boots. But no one looks at this anymore. And maybe in the future, no one will know that there are even people behind this Pida.